One Year on ...

We returned to Perth two weeks before our flight out of Oz as we were nervous about selling the van, having heard horror stories from other travelers of having to leave their van at the airport with the keys inside. We imediately set about cleaning her up and putting up posters on hostel notice boards and in local papers. Then, amazingly, we sold her, on the first day of trying, to two English girls who are traveling to Sydney so with the NSW plates it was perfect for them. They kindly let us stay in the van for the remaining two weeks while the money was transfered but this still left us with two weeks with little to do but bum around Perth and Fremantle (not such a hardship!). We spent a few days sorting out our affairs, closing our Aussie bank acounts and Holland sold his beloved guitar. We also visited Rottnest Island, just off the Fremantle coast line, cycling round it on hire bikes for a day and visiting the many beautiful beaches and spotting the local population of Quokkas (giant rat-like creatures). Holland made the most of being able to swim again and snorkled amongst pink coral but Becky stayed on the beach thinking it was far too cold for those kind of shinangans!

Finally the dreaded day came and it was time to say goodbye to the van, we were relieved to have sold her so quickly but also extremely sad to say goodbye after so many months traveling in her (sniff).

We leave Oz with some money in our pockets, and our backpacks on our backs again. We have now been traveling for a year but somedays it seems like we have been traveling forever, its hard to look back to a time when we weren't on the road using communal bathrooms, wearing scruffy clothes and waking up somewhere different every day. It will be strange to leave Australia which has become a home from home, but we both feel its time to move on and are excited about our next adventure: Asia.